Two Bodies
by Sunkissed Sapphire
Summary: Intimacy comes in many forms, and Ami and Makoto will journey them all.  A departure from the poem by the same name.
1. Night, the Ocean

A/N - Just me playing around a bit here. This short series will seem AU but will eventually (hopefully) fit within the context of a larger story I plan on writing, so please bear with me. The poem is part of_ Two Bodies,_ by Octavio Paz. Comments, feedback, and criticisms are all greatly appreciated.

Disclaimer: Just borrowing Sailor Moon for a bit, and the poem as well.

Also, thanks to Crosswood for so generously allowing me to use her formatting as a place of departure.

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_Two bodies face to face_  
_Are at times two waves_  
_And night is an ocean._

_.  
_

You couldn't quite say the evening was calm. The empty fields and lazy trail of smoke hanging over the chimneys only meant the villagers had relinquished the rest of their day to the low voices rumbling through the sky. But Ami felt enough at ease, nestled as she was between two gnarled and ancient roots. They embraced her from either side, pulling her deeper into the heart of the wood. Above her a foot swung back and forth, black earth falling away from the worn leather boot to shower the ground in front of Ami's knees.

She tilted her head back and looked past the booted foot, past the green canopy for a glimpse of the heavy slate mass above. "It won't be long now."

"Mmm." Makoto's small noise of recognition faded into the ceaseless roll of thunder, one voice riding on the tail of another. Ami wasn't likely to get much more of a response, but she didn't need one. Instead she leaned her head back so it touched the smooth bark, watching Makoto as she sat perched on a branch above her, her foot still swinging idly. She had left her head resting on one knee while her mind journeyed to some distant place.

Ami closed her eyes.

There had been many moments like this since the senshi had awoken in a time between worlds, moments where Ami found herself caught somewhere between lethargy and content. The past was gone, the future was locked in crystal, and while Ami felt like she should be desperately searching for the answers there was an overwhelming need to stop, to slow down, to just…be.

More often than not she shared these moments with Makoto. Sometimes they shared their solitude in silence. Other times they spoke when it suited them, fumbling together toward answers life had yet to give them.

"Mako-chan."

"Hmm?"

"Is it wrong, to be happy here, to be content?"

"Why?" Another shower of dirt, and a few pieces of bark. "Are you?"

"Sometimes." Ami smiled into the silence as Makoto waited. She picked up a stray leaf and began twirling it around slowly, rubbing the stem between her fingers as the leaf did flips and turns in her hand. "I like it here. I like the quietness, the simplicity."

"Then why would it be wrong?"

Ami hesitated. They both knew the answer. Her eyes flicked to the south and a little east where the sleeping city lay. Even at such a distance to be rendered invisible, it loomed over them, a ready weight on the heart whenever touched by the mind.

Without looking up, Ami could feel Makoto's sigh. It was in the earth itself. "The way I see it, there are questions and there are answers. But I don't think we can get those answers by simply looking. Now you can either deal with it by searching for the answers anyway, and let yourself be consumed by restlessness, or you can take this time, this space we've been given, and enjoy it. Live. Grow. Personally, I don't think it was a mistake. I think we are here, now, for a reason. I think the world is changed for a reason. Don't feel guilty just because it feels good."

Ami smiled again. It did feel good. There was a certain amount of freedom in being able to just sit, like she was right now with her mind quiet and her senses open. For the first time in her life, there were no plans, no pressing expectations. For the first time in her life she could relax. Relax, and simply exist.

Ami closed her eyes again.

Thunder boomed overhead, louder now. It wouldn't be long at all. Almost automatically Ami's mind did the calculations, estimating barometric pressure, wind speed, relative humidity—sometimes the thinking mind was difficult to turn off. But there was another way, a way Ami needed to perfect, a way she wouldn't have learned if it hadn't been for here, for now.

Somewhere, somewhere up there was water. She stretched her senses as she tried to feel it with her mind, feeling the moisture in the air, in the tree, in Makoto's breath as she leaned against the trunk, now straddling the branch. Ami stretched her perception further, to the sky, the clouds. In the end, she found it was much closer than she expected. The brunt of the storm had yet to unleash, but rain was already settling upon the forest canopy. She could feel the light droplets as they landed on the tops of the trees some thirty meters above them, coalescing into larger drops, slipping from leaf to leaf, branch to branch, penetrating ever deeper as gravity pulled them down.

She isolated one drop of water, feeling its energy like ripples in a pond as it worked down toward them. It hung, poised on the tip of a leaf twenty meters above them, until some rustle of a breeze sent it further on its way. Fifteen meters. Ten. Without seeing, Ami knew it's path through the knot and lace. She knew also, where that drop of water would land, in the end.

"Mako-chan."

"Hmm."

"You're going to get wet."

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Thanks **Crosswood** for pointing out a small grammatical error. Fixed :D


	2. Night, a Desert

Disclaimer: Mostly not my own, for sure. Poem is _Two Bodies_ by Octavio Paz.

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_Two bodies face to face_  
_Are sometimes two stones_  
_And night a desert._

Even in daylight the world here existed only in shades of gray, but nighttime had rendered it a monotone of darkness. From where she stood Ami could do no more than stare out at the blank world that stretched out before her. Behind her Makoto muttered unintelligible curses until a grunt of approval was followed by the crackling of new flame. Fingers of warmth stroked the back of Ami's neck.

The flickering light tried to cast a fair glow on the world around them, but it is difficult to dispel shadow when there is nothing to catch the light. These two women were in a place where the drumbeat of life had been silenced near one thousand years ago. No green. No birds. The dusty ground, naked save for a stubble of colorless grass, swept away into the distance, right up to the foot of the Crystal City. Ami sucked in a chilled breath. She did not want to be here, where life had failed, where bare trees stood quiet with frozen limbs.

_Frozen limbs. Silent faces beneath a shroud of glass._

Ami forced away the unpleasant images that filled her mind and turned to find Makoto mid-conversation. "Well, we made it. How long do we wait?"

"Until these clouds move." A thick barrier masked the sky above them, casting them in a total darkness that made it difficult to believe tonight's moon was at its peak. Ami turned her back fully on the pressing night and her eyes fell on Makoto. Makoto. Solid. She was the stone that stayed cool through the heat of day but gave all that heat and more into the coldest night.

Ami sat next to her and took comfort in that warmth, grateful, for no one ever came to this place alone. Few came at all. But Ami had been tasked with gathering a very particular herb and so come she did. They called it, simply enough, moonflower, and apparently it was particularly useful for keeping night terrors at bay. Apparently it grew solely in this barren place, showing itself only during the full moon. Apparently it defied everything Ami thought she knew about green and growing things.

The fire popped, a resounding noise in a night of unbroken silence. It occurred to Ami that never before had she felt so alone, so isolated in a place that should have been home.

"Are you cold?" Ami must have shivered, but before words could make themselves heard, Makoto pulled her against her side and stretched her cloak around her. "There we go. No, it's okay, rest your head on me. I'll keep an eye out."

Sleep did not seem welcome here, but Ami did lay her head against Makoto's shoulder. After a while Ami forgot the lifeless expanse surrounding them. Her awareness became limited to just their little circle: the flickering light, the smell of the forest that lingered on Makoto's clothes, the gentle rise and fall of her chest as it took in life and gave it something more.

She didn't mean to fall asleep. When Ami opened her eyes again, the fire was low and their woodpile dwindling. The easiness she had started to feel just a short while ago had also evaporated, the night becoming once again cold and hungry. Ami pulled the cloak tighter around her and settled back against Makoto's side. Minutes fell away into the silence.

"It's so empty." Makoto's voice was only a shade above a whisper. "How can anything grow here, Ami? How can anything be alive so close to it. It's like living in the shadow of death. Even the air feels almost too thin to breathe."

"I know."

"I've tried feeling for it, for life, for anything that could sustain it but there's nothing. Ami, we're the only two living things out here."

Hope, certainty…Ami could feel these things shrinking away from them. Makoto could sense a heartbeat a kilometer away, could find the tiniest sprout in an acre of field. If she said there was nothing…

"Maya said they were here," she said firmly. It was little comfort, but the healer had proved her wrong before. Ami slipped her arm around Makoto's waist and squeezed. "Have faith in her."

"Hmmph. I have faith in _you_." Makoto picked up another gnarled branch and threw it on the fire.

Ami peered through the frenzied sparks twisting in the air and surveyed once again this place around her. There was a time it was green and fertile, with laughter and voices. People didn't just live here once, they flourished. But nine hundred years had rendered this place as sterile as the moon shining down on it.

And the moon was shining, Ami noticed, just a trickle of it spilling through the clouds, blanketing the ground in white light. Makoto must have felt something too. She'd jumped up and was staring at the ground where she'd been sitting, confusion mingling with alarm on her features. Moonlight painted the stark landscape and small green vines followed, pushing through the sterile dust. Everywhere Ami turned the vines were lacing together to cover the naked ground, a soothing balm on a painful scar. Soft leaves of a delicate pinkish-gray unfurled alongside sweet white flowers that glowed with lunar energy.

Ami's breath caught in her chest at the sight of it but there was no time to spend in awe. A quick thought and a flick of her wrist, the little bone-handled knife slipped through the tendrils woven around her. Just as well, for it wasn't long before careless clouds choked the sky once more. As moonlight gave way to shadow the vines began their hasty retreat, curling and folding in on themselves as they plunged back into the earth.

Ami could only stare. She had barely enough time to register the frantic blossoming of life before this place settled right back into its icy hollow. It should have been a light, knowing that life was just biding its time beneath the surface in this place. But it had been little reprieve, too fleeting to be of sustenance in a place so starved. The taste of life only left her aching with hunger.

"Ami." Warm fingers laid across the back of her neck. "Let's go. We're done here."

Ami turned into that hand, facing Makoto. Her face was hard, her mouth a thin line. But her eyes were soft, giving. A small light flickered there and Ami held onto it.

It was enough.


	3. Laced into Night

Disclaimer: characters and poem not mine, but I hope you enjoy regardless.

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_Two bodies face to face  
__Are at times two roots  
__Laced into the night._

If time was the great architect of the earth, then light was her artist, and water the medium for both. These thoughts flurried through Ami's mind as she lie awake on the floor of the marbled cave, vaguely wondering why she wasn't asleep. The answer, it would seem, was dancing in the corner of her eye. Perhaps it was a chink in the fortress of stone surrounding her, or a masterfully placed window, but somehow a beam of moonlight pierced the darkness of this little hollow in the earth, a pool of water letting it bathe the walls in a subtle duet of light and dark.

It may not have been a place of stillness, but the cavern she and Makoto shared for the night was certainly quiet. Ami felt, rather than heard the steady trickle of water that fed the small pool, felt it seep down further into the earth, navigating the cracks and fissures before free falling through empty space. And hardly a noise escaped from the woman next to her who lay sprawled out in an easy sleep, one arm carelessly flung above her head and the other resting with her fingers splayed across her stomach.

Ami stretched her hand through the half darkness and rested it on top of Makoto's while the shifting light crept down the walls and enveloped the two of them in their silent motion. She watched it dance along Makoto's bare, tanned skin, watched it trip over the lines of old scars, and shape itself around the strong lines of Makoto's muscled limbs. The light washed back and forth, and like the ceaseless ocean against rocky headland, it began erasing the hard planes of Makoto's body.

Mesmerized by the patterns of light and shadow playing across Makoto's skin, Ami began trailing them with her fingers, outlining the shape of Makoto's hand beneath her own, moving up her stomach and around the curve of her breast, along the inside of her arm and up to the crook of her elbow. Traces of pale blue remained in the wake of her touch, but perhaps it was only in her mind's eye that she could see the imprint of her energy, and the slight green of Makoto's lingering on her fingertips.

Ami finished her trail to Makoto's open palm, her fingers tracing the lines there that were cast in sharp relief. Life line to heart, and head line to fate. Broken and deep, these lines were all that remained of a past she finally relinquished to a crystal tomb. She continued to trace these lines and more, linking them together and smoothing them out, when Makoto's hand closed around her own. Ami looked up from the map she'd been studying to find herself under the slightly unfocused gaze of green eyes and a sleepy smile. Light began to withdraw from the cavern, the moon slipping past whatever window had let it in and continuing its trek through the night.

Ami returned the smile in the failing light, and met Makoto's lips with a soft, lingering kiss. When Ami pulled away, night had enclosed them in the close fabric of absolute darkness. She was taken aback by how much her perceptions shifted when one sense was taken away, how much her sight could be replaced by something else. Touch—the places where her and Makoto's bodies met—she was suddenly aware of nothing else. Only the way Makoto's leg wound around hers registered now, and the hand at her back that held them together, stomach against stomach, breast to breast. Of her own hands, one was still laced with Makoto's, and with the other she now sought out Makoto's ear, soft between her finger and thumb, tracing it up and weaving her hand through the sweep of Makoto's thick hair.

Touch. She wanted more. Ami lowered her lips once again to Makoto's, turning her head just slightly so that the corners of their mouths brushed. When she kept going, brushing her lips along the edge of her jaw, Makoto brought up her free hand to her face, questioning.

Ami held her hand there and whispered in her ear. "I just want to feel you." She turned her head into Makoto's hand and there began tracing her lips once more, across her wrist and through her arm. She followed the line of her collarbone, noting the difference between skin over muscle and skin over bone. She continued down, over the top of Makoto's breast, pausing momentarily to marvel at the feel of her nipple hardening against her lips. When Ami moved on it was with slight reluctance. But then she stumbled, her lips tripping, just as the light did over an imperfection in the skin. Even darkness couldn't hide this scar, a scar that was Ami's also. Long and thin, extending from a point just beneath her left breast down to the edge of her hip, it's presence was in reality a miracle, for the wound it covered should have meant defeat.

Ami pushed through the hesitance and followed the old wound, kissing the point where it started and following the neat raised line of tissue as it traveled along her body. She was stopped, however, when Makoto again brought her palm to rest against her face. She tugged under Ami's chin and she obliged, sliding back up so they were again face to face in the darkness.

"Let's not linger there," she whispered, tucking unseen locks of hair behind Ami's ear. "Let me hold you."

Ami nodded and kissed Makoto's cheek. She shifted her position so that she lay more comfortably against her, her leg draped across Makoto's middle, and her head nestled in the hollow beneath her neck. She rested her hand on her chest, feeling the steady rhythm, and Makoto enclosed her in the circle of her arms. The two of them rose and fell with one breath, and night breathed with them.


	4. Night Strikes Sparks

Whew. I think the lateness of this chapter is beyond an acceptable apology, but, well, here it is. All I can say is, life has a funny way of happening when you least expect it, and I certainly can't complain about the direction it took me.

Anyway, many thanks to all of you have come back to join me in this little project. You will be pleased to know that the final installment is all but finished and should be up by the end of the week. As always, comments and critiques are always welcome, and I thank you in advance for pointing out whatever errors slipped by.

Humbly yours, Sunny

Disclaimer: The characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi, and the poem to Octavio Paz. I could call the rest mine but my muse might object.

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_Two bodies face to face  
__Are at times two knives  
__And night strikes sparks._

_._

Mercury stopped running. She was panting, gasping. She was light-headed and warm blood trickled down her cheek. It was so dark. She knew dawn was just an hour away, but that knowledge did nothing to lessen the depth of night surrounding her. She willed her heart to slow and marshaled her breathing one lungful at a time, gaining some measure of control over the fear knotted in her chest.

A sound. Or rather, the feeling of many feet sprinting across the soft forest floor. Claws scraped against bark and fallen limb as they grew closer. Growls and snarls penetrated through the night and struck her cold. Night Terrors. They were indeed the stuff of nightmares, brutish creatures with coarse fur and twisted, mangled scars. Though they walked upright they were far from human.

Jupiter was preparing defenses. The small clearing where they had stopped became a net of protection as vine and thistle wove themselves together. The wall stretched to the sky, just in time. The creatures surrounded themselves around the wall, their growls and snarls filtering through the dense brush. One let out an excited yip, and then another. One by one they joined into the frenzied chatter.

The sound was chilling. Mercury swallowed against that knot in her chest and echoed Jupiter's stance. Palms down, she pushed her hands out away from her with a slow exhale, and a sheet of ice spread across the ground as she did so. She heard the distinct noise of swords unsheathing as Jupiter removed the two dao blades she kept strapped to her back. They glowed faintly with the energy she poured into them, the light glittering off the icy rink.

Meanwhile the noise intensified, the inhuman chorus filling every nook and hollow, ringing against tree and stone, rising in fervor and pitch until all at once-it stopped. The night hung in sudden stillness. Then a shadow of a figure hurled itself over the wall and landed neatly on the ground, followed by another, and yet another. The battle had begun.

The Night Terrors were unprepared for the ice. When the first one landed it's legs gave way and the creature slid across the ice directly toward the pair. Jupiter was ready and a fluid motion with her pair of swords left the creature an unrecognizable bloody heap. Mercury turned her attention to the other Terrors that joined them. A calculated wave of water picked up two more and flung them against the unyielding wall.

The creatures continued launching themselves into the arena and the battle waged. The darkness was punctuated by the painful brightness of Jupiter's attacks and Mercury saw the world only in a series of still frames. There was an impact and the world tilted as Mercury fell backward on the hard ice with one of the creatures on top of her. Without thinking she grabbed hold of the thick fur on it's snout and tried to hold back the gnashing teeth in search of flesh. She poured ice-cold energy into the creature but it was resilient. Dripping fangs grew closer.

Across the rink Mercury heard Jupiter shout and then the noise of metal skittering across the ice. Mercury grabbed the blade and carved through the beast's hide. She ignored the arterial spray and heaved the creature off of her. Jupiter's energy still pulsed through the sword, fitting in tune with Mercury's own rhythm. She surrendered herself to the strange harmony and became the blade. Claws against steel, steel against fangs, her feet danced for her while the sword sang out against the enemy. She and Jupiter rejoined back to back, seamless in their movements, and the bodies piled around them.

Mercury saw little. Her muscles reacted to threats before her eyes could even make sense of the shapes and movements around her. A block to the right countered claws aimed at her jugular. She twisted and the beast lay twitching at her feet. Parry. Thrust. Something flickered into view to her left and she shifted her weight, swinging the sword hard through the air.

White sparks exploded around her and a metal clang coursed through the arm holding the weapon. Jupiter's face came into focus behind the clashing metal, her face lined with concentration and sweat dripping from her temples. Mercury's breath caught momentarily, though maybe it was just the shock of electricity passing from Jupiter's blade into her own. Jupiter nodded with an almost imperceptible smile and pulled her blade away, spinning back to face the onslaught of creatures.

Mercury lost herself into the battle. There was the sword and the enemy, and nothing else. It came as a shock when Mercury moved to sink her blade into one of the creatures and found herself staring at a golden chain wrapped around it's neck. The beast collapsed and Mercury was left face to face with the other senshi who'd shown up at last.

"Looks like you guys barely needed us."

Mercury barely registered Venus' words. Fire danced in Mars' outstretched hand, the light casting harsh shadows across the remains of the mangled creatures. The perfect circle the two of them had created was a distinct void surrounded by the dead and dying.

The dying. Mercury could hear their rattled breaths and sharp gasps. Her eyes stumbled onto one of the whimpering creatures. It was one of the smaller ones, its chest laid open and fresh blood seeping from its wound with each heartbeat. Mercury dropped next to the creature. It barely moved, but watched her with its pale blue eyes. Mercury saw something in those eyes she was not prepared for. She recognized the pain and fear in those eyes. Mercury swallowed the rising bile in her throat and pressed the blade to the creature's neck while staring into those eyes. She made it quick.

And then it was all overwhelming. The exposed flesh and matted fur, the stench of blood. Mercury stood and squeezed her eyes closed, shutting out the firelight. She did not want to see the rest of the bodies. She did not wish to see the damage her blade had inflicted upon them. There was a touch on her shoulder, and the sword was removed from where it hung loosely in her hand. Jupiter filled the empty hand with her own and led Mercury back into the dark.


	5. An Empty Sky

Disclaimer: I was glad to be able to borrow the characters for a bit, and the poem as well. I hope you enjoy!

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_Two bodies face to face  
Are two stars  
Falling in an empty sky._

.

There was a place tucked into a small fold of the valley that spent most of the year unnoticed. It was a fairly unremarkable part of the forest, just a handful of short trees and a tumble of gray granite that climbed upward into the mountains. There were certainly more spectacular places.

Except in autumn.

Minako sat atop one of the tall boulders, watching the sun set fire to this small corner of the forest. The trees seemed taller, somehow; thick crowns ablaze in reds and golds drew the eye away from the green giants surrounding them.

Minako's eyes were distant, fixed, the line of her mouth neither a smile or a frown. Her mind was so full it may as well have been blank and the harder she tried to think, the more she found her attention inexorably drawn to the leaves drifting around her. Autumn whispered to the trees, nudging them gently, telling them it was time to shed their proud mantle of gold and copper and surrender themselves to the scrubbing winter would give them in preparation for Spring's renewal.

A shuffling sound below her drew her gaze. Completely oblivious to her, two lovers walked hand in hand along an old cart track that wound beneath the canopy, their feet shifting through the litter. No words passed between them, or perhaps they were simply too quiet to hear. They paused beneath one of the trees and Ami pointed up into the canopy with her free hand. Makoto smiled at her and reached up into the branches, touching first one leaf, and then another. Ami nodded and Makoto pulled down one of the rusty leaves, offering it to her. Ami smiled and wrapped her hands around Makoto's, holding them together. She took the leaf and tucked it in a journal she had stowed in her back pocket.

Makoto reached a hand out to finger through Ami's hair, curving her hand around her ear and rubbing it slowly between her thumb and forefinger. They stood face to face, close, the faint clouds of their breath mingling in the air between them. Ami's face colored under the attention, but she smiled when Makoto leaned in to kiss her. After they pulled away Makoto took the woolen hat from her head and fixed it snugly around Ami's ears. And still without a word spoken between them, they continued on their way beneath the foliage with fingers laced.

Minako was unaware she had stopped breathing until the cold air stung sharply in her lungs. After the couple passed well beyond her view she reached into her pocket and pulled out a token: half-woven strips of cloth and slender cuttings of lavender. Her weary features broke into a small smile, and she tucked it back into her skirts. Maybe not now, maybe not for some time. But she would hold onto this wish she would someday make.


End file.
